Tom Jones
Aug 2, 2010
At age 70, Tom Jones is making a career move. His new album, Praise and Blame, will not feature the hip-swaying, tight-pants pop that he's become known for. Rather, the new album will be a stripped down record of hymns, gospel and blues songs, including covers of works by John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan and The Staples Sisters.
The album follows a blueprint started by Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin with their American Recordings, in which the late singer teamed up with the top producer to bring his music to a new audience. Neil Diamond (with Rubin), Loretta Lynn (with Jack White) and most recently Willie Nelson (with T-Bone Burnett) have all recently done "stripped down" records of this sort, and Jones teamed up with producer Ethan Jones, who has worked with Kings of Leon and Rufus Wainwright. The album was recorded with only a few players at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, and will feature guest spots from Gillian Welsh and BJ Cole.
Although the formula seems to be a sure thing, it hasn't won unanimous support from Jones' new label home, Island Records. Island's VP, David Sharpe referred to Jones' new gospel tinged album as "a sick joke" and claimed the label didn't "invest" in an established artist for a gospel record, saying it was "certainly not what we paid for."
Jones commented saying, "It's not coming from the creative people in the record company, because they're backing it up all the way, I mean they're thrilled with it, so I don't understand it."
'Praise and Blame', hit stores on July 27th via Lost Highway with Island Records set to distribute the album.
Tracklisting for Praise and Blame :
- What Good Am I
- Lord Help
- Did Trouble Me
- Strange Things
- Burning Hell
- If I Give My Soul
- Don't Knock
- Nobody's Fault But Mine
- Didn't It Rain
- Ain't No Grave
- Run On